Carolina 74 - Duke 69

Kind of a weird game. And Carolina just seems to have fallen into a pattern of not scoring for the last five minutes against Duke. But they built up a big enough lead and played good enough D that it didn't matter this time. Duke's perennial relentlessness almost turned things around, though.

   There was--unsurprisingly--some Grayson Allen trippery. But at least he got a flagrant for it this time. And Brooks could have been hurt--that was a hard fall. Total dick move by Allen, yet again. And Trent pulled Duke's signature kick-the-defender-on-the-3 move against Cam Johnson, and grabbed him and pulled him down to the floor just for good measure on the same play. And got away with it. This is the stuff that makes it hard to regard Duke as just an honorable rival.

   OTOH, Bagley continues to be a blast to watch. Dude is really, really good.

   And Pinson...man, what can you say about that dude? One of my favorite Heels ever.

   Carolina does seem to be the better team. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the year? Not me, I'll admit.